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30 Years Since the Falklands War

Next Monday, April 2, will mark the 30th anniversary of the start of the Falklands War -- or, as the Argentinians refer to it, la Guerra de las Malvinas. The Falklands, an Atlantic archipelago 460 km (290 mi) east of Argentina, are the subject of a long-standing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. In 1982, Argentinian junta leader General Leopoldo Galtieri sent 600 troops to take the islands, which then had a population of 1,800 people. The British government was surprised by the attack, but quickly organized a task force and sailed south to retake the territory. A brief but bloody series of battles took place at sea, in the air, and on the ground, ending with a British victory on June 14 -- 74 days after the initial invasion. In all, more than 900 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured. The loss marked the beginning of the end of Galtieri's junta, but not the dispute over the islands. Current president Cristina Fernandez has been ratcheting up pressure on Britain to engage in new talks over what her countrymen call the Malvinas.

During the 1982 Falklands War, the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano sinks amid orange life rafts holding survivors in the South Atlantic Ocean, after being torpedoed by the British nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine HMS Conqueror on May 1, 1982. While Argentine and Chilean ships managed to rescue 770 men, 323 were killed in the attack.#

Armorers move torpedoes on the flight deck of the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes as Sea King Helicopters were being re-armed to counter the Argentinian submarine threat of the Falkland Islands, during the Falklands conflict on May 26, 1982.#

The British frigate HMS Antelope burning and pouring smoke, sinks in the chilly waters of Ajax Bay in Falkland Sound, May 24, 1982. Four Argentine A-4B Skyhawks attacked the day before, one of them launching a bomb that did not explode, but lodged inside the frigate's hull. While bomb disposal technicians were attempting to defuse the bomb, it detonated, tearing the ship apart and starting massive fires. All but two crew members survived, the ship sank hours later.#

Hundreds of people jam Calle Florida in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 21, 1982 to read the latest newspaper in the window of a store. The crowd was especially large when war news from the Falklands became available.#

The surviving crew of Argentine Navy patrol boat, Alferez Sobral, stand at attention in the city of Puerto Deseado on the Argentine mainland, during a ceremony honoring their companions killed when their boat was attacked by Britain's HMS Coventry, on May 4, 1982.#

A frigate closes in on the damaged HMS Sheffield, spraying water from her hoses as a Sea King helicopter hovers over head in Falkland Islands, on May 28, 1982. Two Argentine Super Etendard strike fighters attacked the ship with missiles, starting fires that burned for days, before the Sheffield finally sank. Twenty lives were lost.#

A line of Argentine prisoners of war are marched past a still-burning building in Port Stanley during a house-to house roundup in the final days of Argentine occupation of the South Atlantic islands in 1982.#

Discarded Argentine weapons in Stanley on June 16, 1982. After British forces took control of Stanley days before, Argentine Brigade General Mario Menendez surrendered to British Major General Jeremy Moore.#

A mass grave for thirty Argentinian soldiers after the battle for Darwin, during the Falklands conflict in this undated 1982 photo. On June 14, 1982, Argentine forces withdrew from the Falkland Islands after being defeated by British troops following the two-month war.#

Argentine Falklands War veteran Jose Luis Aparacio holds up a picture of himself (right) and his mate Jorge Suarez (left) when they were taken prisoner by the British troops after the June 12, 1982 battle of Mont Longdon. Photo taken in La Plata, Argentina, on March 20, 2007.#

Stephen Dickson shows his partner Emma Reid a photograph of him taken during the Argentine invasion in 1982 in their house at North Arm on February 7, 2007 in the Falkland Islands. In the photo, eight-year-old Stephen Dickson helps a Parachute Regiment soldier carry a mortar bomb at Port San Carlos. Dickson now lives with his family in the settlement of North Arm, 100 miles south of the capital Stanley. This tiny farming community of 19 adults and six children is served by a school house and a shop that opens for three hours a week.#

A sheep in Darwin village, Falkland Islands, on March 25, 2012. Sheep farming used to be the main source of income for the islands, but it has diversified in recent years, with fishing and tourism growing. Some over 500,000 sheep still call the Falklands home.#

Falkland islander Phil Middleton poses in front of his home and collectors shop in Port Stanley, on March 15, 2012. Some islanders are the descendants of British settlers who arrived eight or nine generations ago. There is a sizable community of immigrants from Chile but the islands retain an unmistakably British character.#

A colony of Gentoo penguins rest in a minefield at Kidney Cove, at a stretch of beach across the Falklands Islands' capital Stanley, on September 9, 2005. Most of the 150 minefields were laid around the capital Stanley when Argentine forces landed there in April of 1982.#

Falkland islander Nancy Mansilla (2nd left), from Argentina, and her husband Joseph Reid, who was born in the Falklands, pose with their children Zoe Meg (center) and Owen Joseph in front of Nancy's workplace in Port Stanley, on March 16, 2012.#

An abandoned Argentine recoilless gun on Mount Longdon, one of the places where the soldiers bitterly fought during the war for the possession of the Falkland Islands in 1982, photographed on March 20, 2007.#

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